


In the name of the (Kryptonian) Moon...

by josephina_x



Category: Sailor Moon - All Media Types, Smallville
Genre: (er sorta), (sort of?), Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Magic, Magical Girls, More Magic, Transformation, Wands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2014-10-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 11:36:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/952623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josephina_x/pseuds/josephina_x
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the day after Halloween, and Lex is beginning to realize that <i>maybe</i> he shouldn't have tried to cast a certain spell the night before. Unfortunately, Clark's life, and the lives of everyone around him, get a little more... "interesting"... because of it, and (even worse) the only two people who seem to be <i>not</i> okay with all this are Clark and Lex themselves. (oops.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nicnac](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicnac/gifts).



> Title: In the name of the (Kryptonian) Moon...  
> Author: [josephina_x](http://josephina-x.livejournal.com/)  
> Fandom: Smallville  
> Pairing: Clark, Lex  
> Rating: PG-13 (some mild swearing)  
> Spoilers: general for early seasons (...and late seasons, and every darn thing in-between); happens in season 2 after 2x06 Redux and before 2x07 Lineage  
> Word count: ???+  
> Summary: It's the day after Halloween, and Lex is beginning to realize that _maybe_ he shouldn't have tried to cast a certain spell the night before. Unfortunately, Clark's life, and the lives of everyone around him, get a little more... "interesting"... because of it, and (even worse) the only two people who seem to be _not_ okay with all this are Clark and Lex themselves. (oops.)  
>  Warnings: Unbeta'd  
> Disclaimer: Not mine, not-for-profit.  
> Comments: Yes, please! :)  
> Author's Note: A follow-on piece to [Be Careful What You Don't Wish For, Too](http://archiveofourown.org/works/951095). I blame Nicnac for this one. Completely and utterly. (You can read the comments there for mild spoilers ^_^;;)

~*~*~*~*~*~

"--oo!"

Lex blinked and glanced over at Clark as they were walking down the sidewalk. "What?"

"What?" Clark said, looking at Lex with a completely guileless look.

Suspicious. Hmm.

Lex pretended to shrug it off, looking away.

But he watched Clark surreptitiously out of the corner of his eye -- in their reflection in the storefront windows across the street. Thus, he was ready and paying close attention when he saw Clark crane his head over his shoulder and...

"Sh--!"

Lex whipped his head around so fast he nearly gave himself whiplash, and caught Clark making desperate 'go away!' motions at a little white cat with a black patch of fur on its forehead, almost in the shape of a squat diamond. The diamond was a bit flat at the top of the shape, though...

Lex glanced at a startled and guilty-looking Clark, and then down at the cat that was following them. He looked back up at Clark again.

"Are you trying to shoo away that cat?" Lex asked as they continued walking along the sidewalk.

"Um," said Clark, looking really very nervous as he picked up the pace, and Lex had to stretch his legs a bit to follow. "Maybe?"

Then he shied away a bit as the cat shot forward suddenly, catching up to and staying right between them.

And Lex was pretty sure that when the cat craned its head up at Clark as it trotted along, that it was giving him a glare of some sort, if Clark's subsequent reaction glancing down and then away from it wincing was anything to go by.

Without breaking stride, Lex bent over and scooped up the cat to cradle it in his arms.

"Oh-- ah!" he heard.

Lex stopped in place.

He looked down at the cat.

He readjusted his hold, circling his hands under its forelegs, and lifted it up to stare it directly in the eyes.

"Meow?" it said.

Lex's eyes narrowed.

He turned to look at Clark.

Clark looked really, really nervous.

"That didn't sound like a very cat-like sound," he put out there.

"Meow doesn't sound like a catlike sound?" Clark tried, with a very pained smile.

Lex's eyes narrowed further.

Clark's sickly smile -- if it could be called that -- died a quick and unpleasant death.

Lex looked back at the cat.

"Meow," it said firmly.

Lex eyed the beast.

Then he pronounced out loud, "I'll give you a whole salmon if you--"

"--Done!" said the cat.

"Krypto!" Clark hissed at it, then his eyes widened and he immediately slapped both his hands over his mouth.

The cat looked only slightly repentant. "What? It's fish!" it said.

Lex smirked. He could have been talking to either one of them, and Clark knowing its name meant that he knew... and that Clark had panicked like that after meant Clark now knew that Lex knew that Clark knew that he knew that--

"--And I think he's one of them," it added.

Clark looked a little green.

Lex blinked.

"Would you hand me over to him? You're horrible at this holding thing," said Krypto.

Lex handed the -- yes, decidedly male -- cat over into Clark's arms. Clark looked like he wanted to drop it.

And the way Clark was backing into the nearest alleyway, glancing around about as unfurtively as Lex had possibly ever seen in his life... Well, the way Clark was acting was more likely to draw attention to him than if they'd just stayed out in the middle of the sidewalk and it kept talking aloud.

"How did you end up with a talking cat?" Lex asked him, drawing significantly less attention than Clark had been as he followed Clark's retreat.

"I-- I don't _know!_ " Clark all-but-wailed under his breath. "But he just showed up outside my bedroom window this morning, and he won't shut up, and he won't leave me alone, and he won't _go away_ \--"

"--and you think people will notice that a talking cat is interested in you?" Lex said, biting down a grin. Clark always had had problems with not being normal -- namely, that he wasn't, and he tried to be, and he'd really just be better off if he--

Clark gave him a _**look**_ that said it all.

Fair enough, Lex already had.

Lex took pity on him -- not a normal occurrence, either -- and was about to tell Clark to just pretend that he was learning ventriloquism when the cat opened its mouth again and said:

"You wouldn't happen to already have your transformation wand on you, would you?"

Lex blinked at it again. _Transformation wand?_

"I have _a_ wand," he admitted, glancing up at Clark.

Clark looked a little nonplussed as well. That probably meant that it hadn't come up in discussion earlier.

"...Well?" said the beast.

Lex stifled a sigh and adjusted the old schoolbook satchel on his shoulder. He worked the flaps, then pulled out his wand.

He held it up for perusal.

The cat sniffed at it, then pulled back its head and sneezed once.

"Hmm, not quite," it said. "Close. Sort-of smells right, but..." Then it frowned. "Or... maybe it does more than one thing?" It looked up at Lex expectantly.

Lex slowly looked over at Clark.

Clark looked at Lex.

"I didn't conjure up a cat for you last night," he said.

Clark sighed, deep and morose, and the pleading-almost-hopeful look dropped right off of his face.

"Perhaps we should go someplace a little more... discreet," Lex offered.

Clark perked up and nodded repeatedly, clutching the cat to his chest.

Lex slipped the wand back into place, resettled the flaps on the satchel, and they headed off for his parking space on Main Street.

No... No, Lex hadn't tried conjuring up a cat last night.

But try as he might, Lex really couldn't think of how a talking cat for Clark could possibly have _anything_ to do with a spell that was supposed to help him find the star-crossed love of his life and embolden them into seeing him in a new light and sharing with him the truth of all things, and vice-versa.

~*~*~*~*~*~


	2. Chapter 2

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex wasn't entirely sure how "discreet" translated to "the Torch offices at the high school surrounded by every person we sometimes associate with," but somehow it did.

Chloe, Lana, and Pete were crowded around the cat, which was now sitting on a desk, washing itself, and intermittently answering questions to the bunch.

Clark was leaning against a nearby desk, arms crossed, and about as far away as he could get from it without running the risk of it thinking he was avoiding it again, which would probably prompt it to jump up onto a desk and sitting far closer to him, instead.

Lex hovered a little farther away than that, thinking hard. Had it really been him? If so, what had he done so wrong last night?!

"Lex?"

Lex shook himself out of his thoughts for a moment. "Yes, Clark?"

"...Why are you pacing?"

Oh. Oops.

And now he had five pairs of eyes staring at him intently.

...Well, shit.

"...Lex?"

"I, ah," he stopped and cleared his throat.

"Oh my god, you did cast a spell!" Clark accused him. "you _lied_ to--"

"No, I didn't!" Lex said quickly. "I didn't lie! I--"

"You did!"

" _It wasn't a cat spell!_ " Lex yelled out desperately.

Silence.

Clark glowered and crossed his arms. "But you _did_ cast a spell."

Lex swallowed.

"...Maybe a little bit," he admitted.

Clark's eyes narrowed.

"Did you cast the spell on _me_?" he asked, watching him intently.

Lex stood there and tried not to cringe.

"What was the spell?" Lana asked from the other side of the room.

Grateful for the reprieve, Lex opened his mouth, and glanced over at the one cat and three teenagers--

...and then he shut it again when his brain caught up to him.

"Lex?" Clark said in a weird tone.

"Ah..." he trailed off. He closed his eyes for a moment, as he said, "I, ah... I was only trying to... help..."

And that really was enough, because what _else_ had Lex ever meant these past two years or so whenever he'd uttered those words?

Clark made a slightly strangled sound.

Lex opened his eyes to peek over at him. "...I'm sorry?"

Clark scrubbed at his face with his hands, shoulders slumped.

"What exactly did you cast from the book?" Clark asked through muffled hands.

Lex hesitated.

"I was really very careful..." he began.

Clark froze, then dropped his hands and stared at him aghast. "You _made something up?!_ "

"No!" Lex said, raising his hands defensively. "No, I-- I just-- I followed the instructions!"

" _Which_ instructions," Clark asked, jaw clenched and eyes blazing.

"I--"

"Where's the book?" Clark said, glancing down at Lex's satchel, still over his shoulder.

Lex reflexively grabbed the strap with his hands. "I can't give it to you," he said hurriedly. "The woman I bought it from was very clear about that."

"Then show me," Clark demanded.

"I don't-- it's not--" Lex shook himself and straightened. "Clark--"

" _Lex._ "

Lex shook his head, and worked his jaw as he unshouldered the bag onto a clear table.

"Fine," he said tersely as he opened the bag, "but it won't help."

"Why not."

"Because, Clark," he began with a slight sing-song edge to his tone that he couldn't quite keep out, "unless _you_ were lying to _me_ yesterday," he brought out the book and flipped it open with a thump, "you won't be able to read it," he said, flipping to the page, and slapping a finger down on it, "because you can't see it."

Clark frowned at him furiously and looked down.

"I--" he began, then paused.

Lex knew something wasn't right when Clark's shoulders slowly got a little less square and he bent over the book.

Then he realized that Clark was flicking his eyes back and forth like he was reading--

Clark straightened abruptly. "You cast _**THAT?!?**_ " he all-but-shrieked, shoving himself away from the table like he thought the book was going to catch fire, right in his face.

"NO!" Lex said immediately, "I was going to, but I thought it was too strong! So I--"

Clark wheeled on him. "So you _did_ make something up!"

"I followed the book!" Lex yelled, gesturing at it, "There are pages in the back that talk about--" He cut himself off, shaking his head angrily. "How can you even _see_ it now?" he demanded, as he moved back to the book and started flipping pages. "There!" he proclaimed, smacking the page with his palm, "See, it--" He turned back to Clark and... "You're kidding," he said flatly.

Clark's lips thinned as he stared down at the book, clearly not seeing anything on the page.

"Lex," he said slowly, staring blankly at where Lex was pointing, "If you and I didn't go through this book page by page last night, I'd swear you must be making this up."

 _...Because magic can't actually be real, but I **know** that other page wasn't visible before,_ was implied. Heavily.

Lex pinched the bridge of his nose. At least the pages were so obviously the same -- and not written or drawn in his style, and clearly old enough -- that no-one would--

"Think he could've gotten away with rebinding the book?" Chloe said, looking down at the book with a frown.

Lex blinked, then realized that he now had a crowd around his book. A very close crowd.

"What exactly did you do?" Lana repeated again, but more gently this time.

Lex's lips thinned.

"I used parts from a few different spells and stitched them together -- _carefully_ ," he added, as he paged through the book. "I even put in a failsafe that was supposed to happen, if the spell wouldn't work for whatever reason," he added, then ended in a mutter, "though I guess that didn't quite work out like it should have."

He showed them all the pages he'd used -- well, what they could see, anyway, though Clark could see most, if not all, of them, except for the magician's instructions in the back.

Finally, they all stepped back from the book for a moment.

"What do _you_ think?" Lana asked the cat, which left Lex blinking.

Especially after it nosed it, then sat back on its haunches and said, "Powerful magic. Not the usual sort I'm used to using. Kanda knows more about all the different sorts of energies and things, though," he added. "Once she's back, I'll get her to take a look at it."

"Kanda?" Chloe asked, then grimaced. Lex guessed that she felt weird talking to a talking animal.

"Another cat-form, like me," Krypto told her. "She's a bit more serious, a little less easy-going." He shrugged. "If she doesn't know what it is, though, she'll be able to find out."

"Okay," Clark said thinly, rubbing at his forehead like he was getting a headache. "Okay. Fine. There's two of you. --I still don't get exactly what you were trying to do," he addressed to Lex.

Lex grimaced. This was going to sound stupid out loud.

Clark waited.

Well, he was a Luthor, and Luthors don't get embarrassed. Ever. So he steeled himself and said, "It was supposed to help you find... the love of your life... -- star-crossed, distant, or nearby -- and embolden that person into seeing you in a... a new light and sharing with you the truth of all things, and... the same for them from you. There's a duality bit in there," he added, "that's what that was for. So you would recognize them and so they'd be someone you could share anything and everything with, too," he paraphrased.

Clark was quiet for awhile, as the others giggled and chatted and otherwise talked both at and around them. Lex wasn't really tracking what they were saying; he really only cared about Clark's reaction just then.

"I tried to make it... not so strong that it would force anyone into anything," Lex said awkwardly. The original version had pretty much taken free will and any sort of choice right out of the equation, he'd realized after hesitating at the odd wording and on a second very-worrying read. He'd tried very hard to make it as gentle and general as possible, even in case Clark's 'true love' wasn't strictly female. "It was just supposed to help you and whoever would be right for you find each other and _know_ \--"

"Lex," Clark said quietly. "The wording and gestures and things for this stuff, are they really important to get right?"

"Yes?" They'd even figured out that much last night on their own, when Lex had been trying on some of the magic tricks earlier in the book. He hadn't even needed the book to spell that part out for him.

"Are intentions important, too?"

"Yes... in the back pages the book said that they have a big impact on the outcome." It had been pretty clear about how, depending on what the spell was supposed to do, some spells might possibly work differently for different people... or if the magician wasn't concentrating carefully enough when they were casting it.

Clark looked over at him with an odd sort of calm.

He seemed to take his time to say, "Do you remember exactly what you did?"

"...Yes?"

Clark took in a deep breath, and let it out. "Lex, I think that maybe you should write down everything you did, exactly as you remember it. What you did, and why, and what you were trying to do. And then I think that we should find that shopkeeper that you bought this book from, and go talk to them and get some help."

Lex felt frozen in place for a moment.

Because that was a _really good idea._

"Okay," he said.

He took the paper and pencil from Clark, bent over the table, and started doing just that.

~*~*~*~*~*~


	3. Chapter 3

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex blew out a breath and set down the pencil. He flipped the book closed and packed it away, along with the papers he'd written on.

Then he thought the better of it and packed away the spare paper and the pencil, too -- he'd need something to write down what the older woman at the used bookstore told him, after all.

He closed the satchel up and straightened, about to shoulder it, when Chloe asked him, "Hey, what was the rabbit out of a hat spell for? What part of that did you use?"

"I used the whole thing, actually." Lex hesitated, then glanced over at Clark and said, "As part of the failsafe bit."

Clark looked at him blankly.

"Uh, mind running that one by us again?" Pete said, crossing his arms and looking weirded out.

Lex took in a breath and glanced up at the ceiling. "Well..." he began. "I didn't want there to be any backlash if the spell didn't work, or wouldn't work, or anything like that, so if it didn't work... ah," he stalled out, then said the last bit in a rush. "--It was supposed to turn Clark into a rabbit and bring him to my hat, so he would be safe, just in case." Because Clark could have been anywhere, and his parents might not have recognized him, and...

" _WHAT?_ " Clark yelped, staring at him.

"Everything's fine, you would have been fine!" Lex assured him. "The people-to-animals and animals-to-people spells and the reversals and things for all that are really, really easy -- practically foolproof --"

Clark started making strangled noises.

"-- and you would have been right there and I could have changed you right back immediately," he continued. ...Though, well, not _right_ back, maybe, not absolutely **immediately** , because a Clark-bunny would obviously have been cute and lovable and cuddly, so he probably would have at least scooped him up and gently petted Clark on the head a few times first, which, honestly, he would really like to do to Clark at some point regardless of screwed-up spell-backfirings, not that he was going to _admit_ that to Clark _right this second_ \--

No, no, really, he'd rather Clark find the love of his life -- and vice-versa -- far more than he'd like to pet a Clark-bunny on the head. ...Probably.

\--No, no, _almost definitely_. Yes, definitely. Probably.

And _clearly_ he couldn't have screwed up the spell _that_ badly, even though there were no cats anywhere in there at all, because Clark was not a bunny rabbit!

Because if Clark _were_ a fur-covered, cute little bunny rabbit -- which he obviously was not -- he absolutely had _not_ been transported to his hat last night for subsequent de-spelling, and there was _no way_ that that part could have gone wrong the way he'd put the spell together!

Pete was giving him a glare. "Problem?" Lex asked him, because, well, why not?

"I'm just wondering why you tried out a stupid wacky spell like that on my best bud _first_ ," Pete said, glaring harder.

Lex suppressed an eyeroll. "Because I can't use a magic wand without hands, or incant without a human mouth?" Spellcasting without using those tools was extremely advanced magic, according to the book, and the book he had didn't even cover the basics of how to do that.

"Why would you think that it wouldn't work for you?" Clark asked him, sounding puzzled.

Lex looked over at Clark. "Why would it work for me?" he said, blinking up at him.

Pete, he heard give out a short laugh, but Clark just looked... sad.

"Lex--" he began.

But then they were both cut off by Lana suddenly shouting out, "Oh my god -- _rabbit!_ "

And then the ex-cheerleader pointed at Clark and started laughing hysterically.

Both Lex and Clark stood there awkwardly as Lana completely lost it, laughing so hard she was crying, she couldn't get words out, and they glanced at each other as Chloe tried to calm her down and figure out what the hell the problem was.

Lana, wiping at her eyes, and still giggling intermittently, leaned on Chloe, who helped her sit down, then pulled up a chair and leaned towards her, saying, "Okay, Lana, what the heck--"

" _Usagi,_ " Lana said to her intently, eyes sparkling.

"What?" Chloe said, her expression dropping in confusion.

Lana looked at Clark meaningfully, then over at the talking cat.

Chloe frowned, then blinked and turned to look at Clark, and then...

She blinked again. She looked at the cat. She looked back at Lana.

"Usagi," she said slowly.

Lana nodded seriously.

"Yes," Lex interjected, stifling a sigh. "Usagi is the Japanese term for rabbit, or bunny. What does that have to do with anything?"

Chloe slowly turned her head to look at him. "Usagi... is... _rabbit?_ "

"I'm fluent in Japanese," he told her, but paused as her eyes suddenly went wide and...

Chloe's lips were twitching slightly.

"Pfft--" she blurted out.

Lex frowned at her.

Chloe turned back to Lana, tugging at her sleeve. "Lana, oh g-- pfft--" She covered her mouth with her hand.

"Chloe?" Lana said, eyebrows going up.

"Lana," she said. "It's-- it's-- he-- _Lana,_ " she repeated, desperately tugging at her friend's sleeve as her grin grew to epic proportions, "Lana, ohmigod, Lana, _Mask_ ," she said urgently. "Lana, _**Mask!!**_ "

Lana stared at her for a moment.

Then her eyes went wide.

"Pfft--" went Chloe.

"Pfft--" went Lana.

And then they _both_ burst out laughing hysterically.

Pete sighed and said, " _Women_ ," with accompanying eyeroll, at about the time that Chloe fell out of her chair she was laughing so hard, with barely an "ow" to mark the event. It was probably a good thing that they were already so close to the floor.

Clark exchanged glances with Lex.

Lex exchanged glances with Clark.

Lex wondered if maybe they should start slowly backing out of the room, just in case this was some sort of meteor-rock-induced episode, or laughing gas exposure, or something to that effect.

Pete finally got up and left the room. Lex heard the clunking sounds generally associated with operating a vending machine emanate back from the hallway, and about a minute later Pete returned with two bottles of water, which he clomped down on the desk table surface near Lana, and on the floor by Chloe's head, respectively.

The cat watched all these shenanigans up until it got bored, and then made itself busy with washing itself instead.

They all sat down and waited for the girls to recover, which they finally did do, with short giggle outbursts intermittently.

"Oh god," Chloe said, grinning up a storm. "You guys are in _so_ much trouble!"

She snickered, while Lana burst out giggling again.

"Okay, we give up," Pete said tiredly. "What the heck do Usagi-rabbit and Lex's mask from last night mean, you mind telling the rest of us?"

And at that Lex turned to look at Pete and frowned slightly, because what he'd said had almost sounded... familiar, somehow?

Well, it tickled at _something_ at the back of his brain, anyway.

But for some reason, Lana seemed to just _light up_ at Lex's reaction.

"Lex," she said urgently, "that book -- were there any spell bits in your spell that had anything to do with, um, drawing from experience? Like... stories? For a happy ending? ...Well, at least _eventually?_ " she said with a glance at Chloe.

Lex frowned, and said, "Well, no, not exactly... --Yes, I did add a part in that was supposed to try and make a... 'happy ending' more likely, as likely as possible, if at all possible -- which was a condition that could spring the rabbit-transformation-bit if it wouldn't--" he added quickly, glancing over at Clark. "But I don't think that there were any _story_ references... in..." he trailed off as something occurred to him.

"...Lex?" Clark said, as Lex dragged his book back out of his bag, and started flipping through pages, faster and faster.

He came to a halt on a page that was 'blank' to the rest of them, had remained so even for Clark. It was a page with a spell he'd only mentioned in passing, and said nothing at all about--

\--but if he read it _this_ way _instead_... then...

Lex slowly brought his head up and stared at Lana, nonplussed.

"How did you...?" he asked in total disbelief.

Lana and Chloe exchanged looks, grinning.

"Oh man, you guys are in so much trouble," Chloe repeated, as Lana stifled another giggle, shaking her head.

"Chloe?" Clark said, losing his patience. "Enlightenment please? _Now?_ "

"Okay, okay," Chloe said, shaking her hands at them. "Stop me if this sounds familiar: Sailor Moon."

Lex frowned, and, looking to his side, so did Clark.

Pete, on the other hand, got a disgusted look and said, "Oh, geez, _that_ girly thing?"

"Pete!" Chloe said, tossing a wad of paper at him, then twisting open her bottle of water and taking a sip. Then she got a better look at Lex. "Wow, wait-- Nothing? Really?"

"Wait, hold on, maybe he only knows it in Japanese," Lana said, tapping her on the shoulder. "Do you remember...?"

"Uh..." Chloe glanced up, thinking back. "Soldier... something. Um. Bish... Bishie..."

"Oh! Wait, never mind -- I remember!" Lana enthused, bouncing in her chair. "It's Bishiojo Senshii Sailor Moon!"

" _Bishōjo Senshi Sērāmūn_ ," Lex corrected automatically and without thought, having had his own pronunciation corrected many times before, and then--

He blinked.

He blinked again.

He stared down at the two girls.

"So you _do_ know it," Chloe grinned as Lana looked on, eyes sparkling.

"...Yes," said Lex.

There was a long pause.

"...You're not going to start laughing hysterically now too, are you?" Clark asked him warily.

Lex collected his thoughts, then slowly turned towards Clark.

"No, Clark," he said, with a sinking feeling. "No, I am not."

~*~*~*~*~*~


	4. Chapter 4

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex was frowning furiously and responding snappishly as he shoved his book back into the satchel again, defending himself as he stood. "Clark _isn't_ a bunny--"

"--he _is_ ," Chloe grinned.

"--the book was _extremely_ clear on what that spell would do if it was triggered--"

"--but you told Clark that intentions have an impact," Lana finally cut in, laying a hand on Chloe's shoulder to silence her for a moment. "Right?"

Lex finished shoving the book in and flipped the flap over. "Yes. So?" he said to her, straightening.

"So if you wanted something specific to happen, would it maybe make that part of the spell stronger, or a bigger part of it, or something?"

"I suppose," he said. The logic seemed sound enough, given what he'd read.

"So did you want Clark to be a bunny?" Lana asked him guilelessly.

"What?" said Clark and Pete together, in unison.

Lex immediately shut his initial reaction right down and forced his face expressionless.

Then he glared at her. "If I _wanted_ a bunny--" he began hotly.

"Nooo," Lana said, looking impish. "Not the one you gave me that you pulled out of that hat. Not just any old bunny. _Clark._ "

"That. Is. _Not_ \--" he gritted out through clenched teeth, but he could just feel the high-points of color burning on his cheeks, and this was totally unacceptable _he was better than this--_

"... _Lex?_ " he heard Clark say in disbelief.

"That's not-- I wasn't--" Lex grimaced and cursed to himself under his breath as he finished securing the straps on the satchel.

Then he dropped it back down on the desk's top surface, glared a death-glare at Lana, and turned to and looked down at Clark, who was still seated.

"I blame the licorice," he said firmly. "I'm used to alcohol, not--" He stopped at the look on Clark's face. "Oh for god's sake, Clark. I wasn't _drunk_ when I cast it; I hadn't had anything to drink at all since the Talon!" and that had only been coffee, tea, and that mouth-numbingly **awful** pumpkin juice. "It was that stupid sugar candy that did it! I blame _it!_ " Because clearly he'd eaten too much of it to concentrate through the sugar rush. _Clearly_.

"I bet you'd make an **adorable** bunny," Chloe agreed.

Clark gave Chloe a look, while Lex ignored Lana's nodding and giggling, which were not helping the situation at all, and then Clark said, with an infinite sort of patience, "Lex, I know yesterday was Halloween and all, but..."

"I don't see what that has to do with anything," Lex cut in. "I'm certain that shop sells licorice on other days, too."

Clark stared up at him.

Lex stared down at Clark.

"Look, it doesn't matter regardless," Lex told him, reaching for his bag. "I'm going to go talk to that shopkeeper and fix everything, so--" He turned away.

"Hey, hold on," Pete called out. "Before you go..."

Lex let go of the strap and the satchel slumped back down on the desk again. " _Yes?_ " he said, with little patience for the boy.

"How do you know about the show?"

"...Show?" Lex repeated blankly. "What show?"

"It's, the..." Pete waved a hand at him, then the girls. "You know!"

Lex frowned for a moment, then looked over at the two girls.

"It's also an anime?" he asked.

"Wait, you read the _manga?_ " Chloe said, sitting up.

"The what?" Clark asked in confusion.

"The books," Lana told him, moving a strand of hair back behind her ear absently while watching Lex. "The Sailor Moon cartoon -- the books came first," she explained.

Lex glanced between them, then answered, "Yes, I read the manga -- the books." He didn't really see how this was relevant to anything, however.

Pete grinned. "Oh, yeah? When did you read them?"

Lex felt a sudden disquiet and stilled.

"Oh, c'mon," Pete said, "When?"

"When I was twelve..." Lex said quietly, not sure how much he should say, really.

"Twelve?" Pete snickered, "you were _twelve?_ " and Lex stopped and looked away. Lana made a quiet startled noise, then elbowed Pete with an angry look on her face.

Lex turned back, to see Pete frowning in confusion, as Chloe suddenly got a look of dawning enlightenment.

"Go on," Lana prompted him.

Lex glanced at the two girls, and then up at Clark, who had a slightly worried look, but didn't seem to know what was coming.

...so Lex took in a deep breath and began again. "When I was twelve, I spent an extended period of time in the hospital--"

"I thought you didn't get sick," Pete said derisively, and Lana told Pete under her breath, "Pete, shut up!"

But that was enough for Clark to get it. He straightened and finished the thought: "because your mom was there for her cancer treatments, and you were staying with her."

Lex saw Pete start, then look like he'd swallowed something bitter.

Lex looked away again, slid his hands into his pockets. "There was another girl there, about my age. She was Japanese; they'd flown in from Japan specifically to see that doctor. We'd sit in the waiting room together. Her mother brought her manga to read for the time during and after the hour of treatment. When she finished reading one, she'd let me read it."

"So that's when you read the manga?" Lana said.

Lex nodded. "They were longer than the comic books I had, and... just a different sort of comic, and I..." He tried not to grimace as he trailed off, staring out the window. "I'd get... bored..." he said, repeating the excuse, the lie he'd used back then, somehow less easy to say now. He could have brought more books if he'd wanted to. He just... hadn't wanted to. They wouldn't have had anything to talk about if he had.

He sighed. "Her favorite one to read was that series. She ended up talking her mother into bringing in the first few volumes for her to 're-read,' so I could read them, too. I was already almost-fluent in Japanese -- more than enough for that reading level, at any rate -- so it really wasn't an issue." He shrugged.

"Do you still keep in touch?" Lana asked him.

Lex blinked at her. "No."

Chloe snorted. "Why the heck not?"

Lex blinked again and looked at each of them. He licked his lips and said, slowly, "Because she's dead."

"What?" Lana said, taken aback. Even Chloe looked startled.

Lex frowned. He'd thought he'd made this clear.

"The girl was there for treatment," he repeated. "Her mother brought her manga to read for the time during and after the hour of treatment," he repeated slowly, verbatim. "We'd sit in the waiting room together after her treatment, because chemotherapy -- with or without total body irradiation -- makes a person feel nauseous," he explained. "Usually, people get so ill immediately after the treatment that moving around much would make them..." He didn't think he needed to spell it out farther than that. "Her mother couldn't drive them back to their hotel room right away, any more than my mother could take the limo back with me, and just sitting in one place for that long when we were that young was just... it was still hard without at least something to do." They'd only just finished seventh grade, after all. "She'd usually finish one book in the room, and let me read that while she worked her way through the next, and we'd talk about things sometimes. Not-cancer things, of course."

The teens exchanged glances.

"Back then, significantly fewer people survived the treatment and went into remission," he added, in case they hadn't known that either. "It was barely a cure until more recently; at the time, it was mostly a stop-gap measure to try and slow the cancer's progression down -- at least for what my mother had, anyway," he grimaced. "There were no FDA-approved targeted therapies back then," he told them, "and they'd only just begun to make widely available the first early working immunotherapy treatments in Japan, let alone here." He shook his head. "Cancer was even more of a death sentence back then than it is now."

"Well, uh," Chloe said, glancing at Pete as he shifted in place looking uncomfortable. "Then do you still keep in touch with her mom?" she asked finally.

Lex couldn't help it. He got a small, twisted smile. "No."

Chloe frowned. "Why not?" she asked, as Lana and Clark got dawning identical looks of horror.

Lex's thin smile spread sideways, until it felt like his face was beginning to crack.

Lex took in a breath, let it out. Quiet was good; calm was better. "Well, you have to understand, Chloe," he began, in a muted, conversational tone. "At the time, my mother still wore a wig..."

This time, even Pete paled a little. Chloe, however, still didn't seem to be getting it.

...or she was pretending not to, wanting Lex to spell it out in whole. Lex's smile became just a little more forced. "...and my mother and I would spend the first part of the hour in one room where she would get her treatment, and the woman and her daughter would spend theirs in another." He stopped to lick his lips, slid his hands out of his pockets and held them behind his back. "So when the girl died, her mother came back one final time to the office ...finishing up the paperwork for the hospital, you see."

He closed his eyes for a moment. "She hadn't realized that I wasn't the one getting treatment, but my mother. And... words may have been exchanged."

Some of which had been, in tones of bloody satisfaction and smug vindictiveness, _Well, I don't see what_ you're _so calm about -- **your** son's going to **die** , -too-!_

He had to open his eyes. Because he could still see her behind his eyes quite vividly, the look of sheer and utter hatred she'd given him, after his mother had smiled serenely at the woman as she'd removed her wig, and informed her to the contrary.

His mother had stopped wearing wigs that day. They also didn't ever go back to that hospital again. He remembered that she'd said that going to and from the hospital had been too much of a bother, and started taking the treatments at home.

Lex also remembered how it had taken two doctors and three nurses to keep the woman off him that day. He still wasn't quite sure what had scared him worse -- how she'd launched herself at him, and the physical violence she'd tried to inflict, or the out-and-out bloody murder in her voice and eyes as she screamed at him exactly how badly she wished he was dead, that he'd suffer just as much as she did, for lying to her and her little dead girl...

And then they'd dragged her off to the psych ward, and he and his mother had gone home. She'd finished up the final course of that treatment, and then they'd spent the final few weeks of that summer at the ranch in Montana, and to hell with the doctors -- she'd told Lionel to fly them in if she needed them. Then they'd returned to Metropolis, and he'd gone back off to boarding school at Excelsior, turned thirteen without even coming home for a celebration that year, certain it would have been the same as the year before, and... she'd died.

She'd died that spring without him having seen or heard from her again since he'd left home that summer, not even once, and he'd only found out she was dead when the reporters had started shouting, shouting out at him, wanting a piece of him, satisfied and smug as they'd poked and pried at him with knife-like words, just like that woman had been when she'd been trying to get at-- when she'd been trying to _hurt_ his mother, until she knew... _better_... until his mother had told her, quite coolly and calmly, that _Lex will outlive me. My son isn't the one who has cancer._

"She wasn't happy," he told them, as he clenched his hands together behind his back until they hurt. But as he stood there and looked at them and smiled, he didn't shiver, not even once.

"Does that answer everyone's questions?" he asked them in calm, cool, even tones that would have made his mother proud.

"Yeah," Clark said roughly. Chloe nodded once, quickly, Pete wasn't quite glaring at him, and Lana looked almost sad. Lex ignored the last; he neither needed nor wanted anyone's pity.

"Bitch," muttered the cat, tail twitching as it put its head down on its paws.

"Mm," said Lex, not trusting himself to say more, as he reached for his satchel.

"Actually, I do," Lana said. "When was this?"

Lex stifled a tired sigh and let his hand rest on the soft, old worn leather. "1992."

"Did you read any of them after that on your own?" she asked.

"No," he said, wondering if there was an actual point to her questioning. "I would have had to have them imported to do so." And he had been only twelve at the time. Even if he'd wanted to continue to do so, he'd have had to try and explain it to his mother... and then his father, which would have been completely untenable for all sorts of reasons. "Why?"

With the way she and Chloe exchanged glances, perhaps this was important somehow?

"Well," she said. "The series ran from 1991 to 1997. You maybe only got to read the first year of them. Maybe the first season or so?"

...or not. If there _was_ a point that they were trying to make, it was eluding him. "And?"

They exchanged glances again.

"How far did you read into it?" Lana asked him.

"It doesn't really matter," he repeated himself, to them all, again. "I'll fix this. It will be fine."

And with that said, he shouldered his schoolbook satchel and walked out without a backwards glance behind him, store-bound for some proper, _decent_ help.

~*~*~*~*~*~


	5. Chapter 5

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex was equal parts downcast and worried by the time he returned to the high school later that afternoon... where Clark and the others apparently still were.

He'd gone to retrieve his car from the lot -- the school being nearby the main drag and the bookstore having been within walking distance along that -- and recognized the beaten up old car that Gabe let Chloe drive. It had occurred to him that not only did that mean it was likely that Chloe was still there, but that the rest of them were likely still on the premises, as well -- Chloe would not have left this newest weirdness unless and until forced to, and the cat wasn't about to leave Clark. Thus...

...Clark was likely still there, and he was owed a very, very large and fervent apology at this point.

So Lex ventured back into the building, and on his way down the hallway he heard voices, and then a very odd sound... --no, _several_ very odd sounds.

...And then a screeching yelp. One emanating from a distinctly male voice.

Lex covered the rest of the distance in a full-out sprint, and grabbed the doorway to help control his motion and bring him to a halt.

\--Clark was standing off to the side, wincing. He looked uncomfortable, but otherwise okay.

So, not Clark. _Thank god._ Then who...?

"What _the hell?_ I am _not_ wearing a freaking _skirt!!!_ " came the far-less-manly shriek.

Oh.

_Jesus._ Give him a heart attack for no reason, please. "That's not a skirt; that's a _hakama_ and _kosode_ , divided trousers and long shirt." He frowned as he took a step inside the door. "Or a _haori_ , a kimono jacket." They had always looked a bit similar to him.

"Wha?" said Pete, glancing up from glaring daggers down at his scarlet pants and bright white shirt.

"It's the traditional garb of a _miko_ , of the Shinto faith."

"Oh," said Pete, glancing down at himself and then lifting a leg to the side to see that this was, in fact, the case. "Well, pants. Okay then." Then he frowned furiously and batted at the long, flowing fabric that made up his outer wear. "Still kinda girly and foofy."

Lex suppressed a smirk; Pete didn't need to know that a _miko_ was a priest **ess** , a shamanistic shrine maiden -- not a priest, and certainly _not_ male.

...Not that it mattered, because Shinto priest garb was nearly identical and...

...Not that _that mattered either_ , because what **did** matter was that--

"-- _oh god_ ," Lex said, feeling the blood drain out of his face as the realization hit. " _Tell me you didn't!_ "

Chloe was tugging at a long white glove, two of which that adorned her arms and ended more than three-quarters of the way up her forearms. As far as he could tell, she was apparently attempting to see how easy or hard it was to remove the accessories from her person. Lana looked up and stopped mid-twirl, the folds of her short, pleated sailor _fuku_ settling about her thighs. "What? We can't enjoy it while it lasts?" she said.

Lex felt his eye twitch.

"Lex?" Clark asked, pushing himself off of where he'd been leaning against the wall.

"I can't undo it right now," Lex said sourly, unshouldering his book satchel and dumping it into a chair. He heaved out a quick, slightly hysterical sigh that left him shivering and scrubbed at his eyes. "I might screw things up worse trying to remove it than..."

He looked back up at the 'transformed' threesome of teenagers. "...well, I _was_ worried about possibly screwing things up worse, but you all seem to have that well enough in-hand. --You need to undo that right now and _not do it again_ ," he demanded of them. "Before it's too late!"

He got a snort from Pete, twin frowns from the girls, and another "Lex?" from Clark.

Lex looked up at Clark. "The short explanation is: the more we go along with, or interact with, things that have to do with parts of the spell, the more firmly it will latch on to us and take effect. It will take longer to... 'get started' if we're careful, and if we're _very_ careful, I _might_ be able to start unraveling parts of it before things get too entrenched."

"In English?" Chloe snarked.

Lex stifled a snarl. "I screwed up the first patchwork spell I made, but without knowing exactly how or why that is, and exactly what I did, it can't be reversed easily," he explained. "The shopkeeper's willing to give me lessons to try and get me up to speed, but I need to hit a certain level of proficiency before I can start dealing with fixing this myself. Casting spells with general effects is much harder than specific ones, and I need to use those to build up a full removal spell that ought to work for any and all of the possible types of spells and spell parts -- and _ordered combinations_ of them -- that could have actually been... cast. Otherwise, anything I do might just layer onto everything else, and seep in and make that much more of a mess of it."

"What, you can't just 'spell b' gone' it?" Chloe said, with a slight laugh.

Lex frowned at her, because clearly she wasn't understanding the situation they all were in. "No. The problem would be akin to having cast a spell to conjure up a particular type of apple, and needing to know at a minimum the color, size, and weight of the darn thing before undoing the spell that brought it into being -- assuming it wasn't a teleportation spell that brought it in from somewhere instead of creating it out of energy, air, and the aether, that is, because then you'd need to know where it came from, as well. --Except you don't know any of that information, because you didn't specify it specifically when you cast the spell 'asking' for it, so it could be any possible random combination of characteristics. ...It's like I had my eyes closed when I cast it," Lex said morosely, "so I don't know for certain what actually happened, let alone what I ended up with."

"Okay," Lana said reasonably. "But can't you look at it now and figure it out, though?"

Lex started to pace. "No," he continued. "Not yet. In my case I only stopped being blind yesterday, so I wouldn't even know what I was seeing if I 'opened my eyes' and tried to determine the 'color' and 'shape' of the 'apple' I conjured from sight alone. I have to learn how to do that, how to 'see' things -- and _understand_ what I'm seeing -- first." He rubbed his hands over his face. "Oh, and 'weighing' it would involve actually 'touching' it to figure that out and not being careful means I might 'bruise' it. And if _that_ happens, I'd have to specify exactly what it's like after the changes I accidentally made -- not just the effects of what I did, but the entire shift in the spell -- when I try to remove it, **not** just what the spell originally gave me, even if I knew that beforehand."

"And changes to the spell -- accidental or otherwise -- can change what the spell actually _does_." Lex came to a stop and gritted his teeth. "So if I'm not careful in the order in which I try to remove things and how much 'force' I use, my removal spell won't work. Too little, or too much, and it'll end up like a big heap of yarn that had its threads yanked on almost at random. I could end up twisting the whole spell into a big tangled Gordian Knot that'll make it even harder to come undone, and twist the _effects_ of the spell along with it." He raised his hands to his forehead. "And we're all mired in this spell, now, even if not all of us were before, which means we'd _all_ be affected by that," Lex said darkly, looking over Pete, Chloe, and Lana.

Clark sucked in a breath.

"Even trying to take it apart by pieces is likely too dangerous to attempt," Lex said, before starting to pace again. "I've only just started out, and apparently even masters of the craft can screw that sort of thing up. If I try to do that and get it wrong, I could throw off the balance of the spell badly -- and twist the effects. That's why the safest thing for me to do is to try and remove the spell all-at-once," he groaned, sitting down on the edge of the nearest desk. "The alternative -- trying to 'get rid of' the spell _without_ knowing exactly where all the knots in the spell are to untie them and how they were tied, then loosen it from wherever and however it was moored down -- involves trying to _block_ it instead, and that's more like throwing mud over something and hoping nothing bleeds through. It's about as messy and as completely **un** helpful as it sounds." Lex rubbed at his temples, trying to forestall the beginnings of yet another headache.

"Lex," Lana said kindly, walking over. "That's fine though, isn't it? If it takes you awhile? It doesn't matter if you can't undo it right away--"

"We already have meteor freaks attacking people in town every other week, Lana!" Lex snapped out, shoving himself to his feet again. "What the hell happens when alien soldiers from another dimension start showing up to drain the life energy out of people, too?" She started and dropped back a step, but Lex just kept right on going. "Do you really want to spend your life taking on huge, ugly, murderous alien monsters once a week, from now until god-knows-when, hoping that you survive another day? --This isn't a game!"

Lana wrapped her arms around her torso, looking scared and angry, but before she was able to retort, Pete spoke up.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm okay with that."

Lex was horribly taken aback. That had been the absolute last thing that he'd expected-- " _What?_ "

"I'm totally okay with that," Pete said, sauntering forward. "So we might have to get into fights with a couple more freaks. So what?" He crossed his arms and grinned nastily. "At least _now_ we'll be able to defend ourselves."

Lana and Chloe both started at this, then started to grin along with him.

"I don't know about this spell you're all talking about," the cat offered, bringing its head up, "but I'd be happy to help you with the finer points of self-defense in using your powers and warrior abilities."

"Oh _yeah_ ," Chloe said excitedly, eyes lighting up with almost bloody glee. "Let's _get on that_." And Lana was nodding briskly, looking about as engaged as Sullivan did, if not even more so.

And Lex had to admit, even if only to himself, that a small, not-so-very rational part of himself actually _agreed_ with that sentiment, agreed with it wholeheartedly. It was the selfish part of him that was fucking sick and tired of getting stomped all over by idiot after jerk after overpowered brute after kidnapper after would-be assassin after psychotic freak, and would really like to avoid a major trip to the hospital sometime within the next few days and maybe, god willing, manage to make it through a whole month injury-free for the first time since arriving in town.

God, he hated this town.

But rationally he knew that just letting things lie as they were right now was the outright _worst_ thing that they could do. This was real life, not that manga, and there was no guarantee that one or more of them wouldn't be mortally wounded, fatally injured, or otherwise die in whatever horrible fate was surely now plodding inexorably their way. And dying was the least of it -- what if they managed to survive through one thing or another, but not without some horrible maiming or disfigurement to mark the close call, let alone a spinal injury or some form of brain damage... or worse. Their lives weren't the same as the _senshi_ , and their situation wasn't exactly the same, either; therefore, it stood to reason that what happened to them wouldn't play out exactly the same as it did in the manga -- there were no guarantees.

And he hadn't been all that careful in specifying just how "happy" that _eventual_ "happy ending" was supposed to be, either. He'd thought that sort of thing was just obvious ...until the conversation he'd just had with the old woman who'd he'd gotten the book from in the first place. More fool he.

Looking up at Clark, he was at least gratified enough to see that Clark was watching his friends with a look of horror that mirrored Lex's own assessment of the situation.

"Lex." Clark swallowed heavily. "Is there anything I can do...?" he pleaded.

Lex shook his head. "I have to unravel this on my own. Apparently I've got a much deeper store of energy to tap into than the old woman who's..." well, for lack of a better term, "going to mentor me." He swallowed. "It turns out that Chloe and Lana were right -- apparently I was caught up in the spell, too, for some reason -- so she was able to look over that part of it while I was there. She can't undo it for me. The spell was far stronger than I intended; I accidentally overpowered it a bit." He grimaced slightly and ran a hand over his head, glancing away to the threesome talking animatedly with the cat over techniques, a training schedule, and logistics. "And that means that there was probably some sort of spillover effect that affected the original pattern of the spell, making it likely that it may have twisted or otherwise fused a few parts of the spell that it shouldn't have."

"Oh, geez," Clark said under his breath, running his hands through his hair.

Lex swallowed, hard.

"I'm sorry, Clark," Lex told him. "It's going to take a while for me to learn enough to even get started on fixing things and undoing this whole mess, but I do have at least a few more books on theory to read to get me started on the subject," he added gesturing at his satchel. "I'll try to spend as much time as I can learning. But I don't know what else I can do."

Clark bit his lip, thinking hard. Then he looked up at him again.

"What if _I_ refuse to transform?" Clark asked him searchingly.

Lex blinked. "You haven't--?" Then he shook himself. _Of course he hasn't. That wouldn't be **"normal"** behavior, now, would it, transforming into a magical moon princess._ And Clark was hardly one just to conform to peer pressure, either, so it wasn't completely surprising that Chloe's and Pete's nagging had had no effect.

Clark shook his head in confirmation, "No, I haven't." Then stepped in a little more closely, glancing furtively over at the cat, which had its back to them at the moment. "Krypto didn't even give me anything to use yet," Clark told Lex under his breath. "And I'm not about to ask. Will that help?"

Lex breathed in, then out again, thinking quickly through what he knew -- about the manga and about the magic he'd cast -- to-date.

"Maybe," he murmured back. "The spell was originally cast on you. You're at the center of it. It would make sense that it should react the most strongly to the actions and decisions that you make. It should be easier to unbind, and work to lesser effect on anyone else, the less strongly it's anchored in you."

Clark nodded once firmly. "Okay then."

Lex nodded back.

"How long do you think it will take?" Clark asked, eyeing his friends with the unspoken tacit understanding that yes, it was going to be difficult for him to ride herd on them and keep them safe and out of trouble, but he'd try his darndest to do so, for as long as Lex needed.

That was the sticking point though, and Lex took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Ah," he said. "Well... apparently I'm going to need to learn how to meditate properly, first."

Clark blinked at him. "I thought you said you couldn't meditate because--"

_\--I'm always angry?_ "Yes, I know," he said.

He looked up at Clark quickly and dropped his shoulders, straightening to his full height. "I suppose I'll just have to learn."

~*~*~*~*~*~


	6. Chapter 6

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex took in a deep breath and let it out again, then steeled himself as he shoved open the front door to the mansion. He really wasn't looking forward to a confrontation with his now-blind father that night.

_You'd think he'd be a little less irritating now that he's out of the wheelchair again, finished with all of his physical therapy, but no,_ Lex grumbled internally to himself. _He's even worse than before._

And if it wasn't something to do with how or what Clark's mother was doing that day 'serving' Lionel, and putting Lex on edge, it was something to do with LuthorCorp, and LexCorp's relative standing thereof. Hell, it was so bad, Lex was giving himself a tension headache just walking down the hallway, knowing Lionel was in the same building with him, and that was on top of the stress of what Lex had found out that he'd done to Clark and himself -- and Clark's other friends -- that afternoon.

Lex uneasily shifted the weight of the schoolbook satchel over his arm as he pushed his way into the library, hoping beyond hope that--

"...Lex?"

\--he'd have what he had used to consider his sanctuary all to himself. But apparently Luthors didn't get to have hope. Rrgh.

"Hi, dad," Lex said neutrally, coming to a stop, and he nearly bit his tongue shortly thereafter, through the sheer effort of quickly clacking his mouth shut, and he did it on purpose. He knew that if he let himself say anything more, it'd start a fight -- he'd start a fight -- and Lex was tired, so tired, just then. He just wanted to sit down and read his book for awhile, study just a little more while he still could that night, and then pass out asleep. Was that _really_ too much to ask?

"Son," Lionel greeted him absently, and he turned back towards the windows. ...Why he did that, Lex had no idea, because it wasn't like there was anything _to_ see, even if he _could_ see. It was dark outside, nearly pitch-black. ...Which just meant that his father had been waiting up for him, wanting to catch him out at the end of the day, and he was affecting the behavior for whatever odd reason.

_All right,_ Lex thought wearily, _let's get this over with._ "Do you need anything, dad?" he asked, as he walked farther into the room and came to a stop near the fireplace.

"...Hm?" said Lionel. Then, "Ah. Actually, yes," Lionel told him, then turned back towards him. He made a gesture in the rough direction of where the couches were.

Lex sighed. "Look, if it's all the same to you--" he began.

" _Lex_ ," Lionel said with authority, "sit down." And then he said something that really got Lex's attention: "Please."

Lex sat down.

Lionel took a seat on the couch opposite him.

Then he cleared his throat quietly and said, "Lex, I want to let you know that I am very proud of your efforts with your new company."

Lex blinked.

He blinked again.

"...Okay," Lex said uneasily, when he realized that his father wasn't going to say anything more until he responded.

Lionel nodded once, as if Lex's agreement with his assessment was his due. "You've done much better than I'd ever expected you to, and you've done a very good job of managing LuthorCorp in the interim that I was in the hospital, on top of that."

Lex blinked again, and then he narrowed his eyes at his father, because there hadn't even been a qualifier in there. According to Lionel, he hadn't "seemed" to do a good job -- he "had" done a good job. A "very" good job.

_What the hell?_ "Who are you, and what have you done with my father?" Lex stated with flippant, cool sarcasm, as he tried to think through exactly what game Lionel was playing this time, because this? _This wasn't funny_.

Lionel chuckled. "Lex, son, you know I don't give out compliments that I don't mean," he was reminded.

Lex frowned at him, because that was true enough, but he'd certainly never gotten any from his father before. Not without a rejoinder attached. "...Thank you, then," Lex said slowly, wondering what he was being set up for _this_ time. And then Lex steeled himself for the inevitable--

"And, having demonstrated such, I think it's time that you go back and finish your degree."

Lex stared at him.

If Lex hadn't been sitting down, he would've tripped and fallen over. As it was, he nearly collapsed in shock.

"What did you say?" Lex demanded, bracing himself upright and leaning back farther into the couch, because his dad could not possibly have said what he'd just said.

Lionel smiled. "I think it's time that you go back and finish your degree."

...And now his dad was seriously weirding him out.

"No, really," Lex said, as he slowly pushed himself forward to the edge of his seat.

"Yes, Lex, _really_ ," Lionel said, with something of a smirk, like they were both sharing an inside joke, just between the two of them.

Lex stared at him for a long time, as his brain tried to reason this one out. There was a catch, there. There had to be a catch. He _knew_ it, he just had to--

He felt his spine straighten stiffly. "And what, _exactly_ ," Lex began, in frigid tones cold as ice, "do you believe will happen to LexCorp in the meantime, while I'm busy elsewhere with my coursework and research?"

Lionel tilted his head slightly. "Oh? I thought you had established the company firmly. You don't believe that the factory's in a strong enough position to survive a few years without your day-to-day support?"

Lex clenched his jaw, then forced himself to relax it. "There's surviving, and there's being able to hold off any concerted attempts at a re-takeover from you," Lex stated bluntly, not in the mood to play games with him that night.

But Lionel raised a hand and waved his concerns off. "I see no reason to do so," he told Lex. "It was losing money on its own for years under the main branch's management. Why would I force you to bring it back into the fold, when doing so will likely break it and turn it into a drain on the company again?" he scoffed.

Lex stared at him. It sounded oh-so-reasonable, but...

"If you're that worried about leaving it without oversight for so long, you could put the company under the guardianship of LuthorCorp again for a few years," Lionel smoothly offered.

"No, thank you," Lex turned down just as smoothly. He thinned his lips, and tried to force the tension from his shoulders. "...You know," he began slowly, "I remember you saying that it was high time I got out of school and started to help run LuthorCorp, when you pulled me from college. That I didn't need it; that it wouldn't be useful for the company."

"Ah, but that was before I realized how well you were able to multitask multiple projects," Lionel told his with a widening smile that almost became a grin. "Not only have you learned the managerial skills I needed you to for the future of the company, but you've mastered them to a degree I didn't think you were capable of before."

Lex crossed his arms and stifled a scathing protest. Frankly, he hadn't _wanted_ to become capable of running LuthorCorp on his own, or the town's shit factory, or anything else. He hadn't ever wanted to run it at all. That was the whole _point_. He'd wanted to stay in school, to finish his graduate studies. And yet his father had seemed determined to misunderstand that, somehow. If his father had gauged his skill based only on what he'd seen, without taking into account Lex's willingness -- or lack thereof -- to take over the reins of LuthorCorp, then of course he'd miscalculate.

"Lex, you were able to handle both finalizing LexCorp's buyout and LuthorCorp's daily management for an extended period of time, and did so _without_ neglecting one of them to the detriment of the other, despite your competing concerns." His father leaned back into the sofa cushions, perfectly at ease. "If you can do that, then certainly you could manage LuthorCorp in whole or in part while also working on your own... scientific side projects," Lionel told him.

Lex shifted uncomfortably. Making sure that LexCorp's buyout went through wasn't exactly something he'd call 'not to the detriment of LuthorCorp' -- at least, it would have been if Lionel had stopped trying to shut it down simply out of spite and it had been allowed to continue operating in the black as it was now -- but...

"Since you've shown that you ought to be capable of doing so without becoming too heavily distracted by one over another, your having an advanced degree or two can only be beneficial to the company in both the short- and long-run, rather than a waste," Lionel concluded.

Lex was... stunned. There was no other word for it. He'd _never_ have expected his father to just... capitulate like this -- because that was basically what he was doing, Lex had no doubt about that. One year ago, Lionel had told Lex that he should think about putting his graduate studies on hold and taking over the Smallville plant for the foreseeable future. Lex had said no, thank you, he'd rather not. Lionel had then more-or-less informed him that it hadn't been a request, that Lex was going to comply in doing as he was bid, and if that meant _quitting_ his graduate studies early because of the prior commitments that his work schedule at the plant was going to require, then that was what he would do.

To say that Lex had been rather less than pleased with his father had been an understatement.

And now, one year later, Lionel was telling him the exact opposite.

The worst part was, Lex had been burned too many times by his father lately to take it at face-value.

"...It's not quite the normal time of year for entering students," Lex said, feeling it out cautiously. "I still have a few things I'd like to square away with the plant first, and I'd need to talk with my old advisor before resuming classes or picking back up my old research. It isn't going to be easy for me to pick up right where I'd left off."

"Of course not," Lionel said. "If graduate degrees were easy, more people would have them."

"I'll still have to think about it, and time things out carefully if I do," Lex said, waiting for an ultimatum.

...Except this time he didn't get one. Not exactly. What he got instead was:

"Well, don't wait too long, Lex. It's never the best time for it, unless you _make_ the time for it. ...Or have you changed your mind about it?"

Lex tensed.

"No, I haven't changed my mind about wanting my Ph.D.," Lex said, knowing he was putting himself out there, but unable to equivocate in the face of the direct question.

"Good! Good," Lionel told him with a grin, and then he stood up, effectively ending the conversation. "Get some sleep then; you sound like you could use it, son."

Lex winced, but he stood up, carefully gathered up his satchel, and offered up a rueful "Goodnight, dad," that he actually almost meant.

As Lex walked out of the library, he glanced over his shoulder and saw that Lionel had returned to standing over by the windows, looking out over nothing with his blind gaze again.

He mentally shook his head and let the door slide shut behind him, and started for his room, feeling drained from the encounter.

The mansion was silent that late at night, and when Lex got to his room, he shoved the satchel with his spellbook and wand off of his shoulder onto the nightstand, and barely made it the two steps to his bed before he collapsed face-down onto it, completely exhausted. And he felt he had a right to be. Because what the hell had that _been_ , even? Since when did Lionel _take back_ anything he said, let alone admit he was _wrong?!?_

Lex shoved himself over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling in consternation, trying to force his tired thoughts into some sense of coherency. Because Lionel had changed the rules of the game on him yet again, and he was struggling _yet again_ playing catch-up.

Lex rubbed his hands over his face and tried to _think_. What was his father really trying to do in offering him this "out"? Did he really mean it? And why hadn't he even hinted at anything like this until that evening? Why had he sprung this on him out of nowhere? Why hadn't he said anything before, when he'd first managed to get the plant's books reorganized without having to fire anyone, or the second time when he'd finally finished restructuring the workforce and procedures to the point that the plant was making money rather than losing it for the first time in almost a decade?

\--It wasn't as though he hadn't had his time and attention split while he'd been handling things at the plant all this time. He'd been investing in other properties in town, like the Talon, splitting his focus, long before he'd had to balance his time, effort, and energy between LuthorCorp and LexCorp without letting anyone on either side work against each other. So why not then? Why now? What was Lionel's game this time? What was so different _now?_

And then it finally hit him. He knew. He knew **exactly** what was different, what must have happened to bring this about.

_Oh my god,_ Lex thought as he realized what Lionel's "game" really was.

Or rather, what Lex's _spell_ had done.

Lex had been somewhat-flamboyantly dressed up as a magician the night before. A _**masked**_ magician. A 'mysterious stranger', _disguised_ by a domino mask, wearing a top hat and a cloak and a suit that bore no small resemblance to a _tuxedo_.

Clark was the center of the magic spell, and it was unsurprising that he had been tapped to be the central 'character' of the piece, Usagi, being the nearest thing the town had to a savior, _Sērāmūn_.

...And Lex was _Takishīdo Kamen_.

Admittedly, he had a better idea now of why the girls had been laughing at them so hard (...though that did seem a bit mean of them, thinking on it). Usagi as 'Sailor Moon' had 'mooned' quite a bit over 'Tuxedo Mask', all the while not knowing who he really was. Worse, in their reincarnated identities Usagi and Mamoru hadn't gotten along **at all** , not in the least. Maybe they'd worked well together and supported each other when they were both in disguise, when both of them didn't really know or remember each other from the Moon Kingdom, sure. But when the masks were off, Usagi had acted like a brat, and Mamoru had teased her mercilessly for her behavior -- almost to the point of downright bullying -- and Lex wasn't like that! And neither was Clark!

Lex remembered the manga, and what he found even **less** laughable were the parallels he found between them. In the manga, Mamoru had been in a car crash at six years old, and had lost all his memory prior to that moment. Lex, alternately, had nearly been killed at nine in the meteor shower that had fallen in town... and had little more than vague memories of his childhood before then. The main difference between them, however, was that Mamoru's parents had been killed in that life-altering car crash. Lionel had also been caught up in the meteor shower, too, and he'd survived, certainly, but... Lex's mother had died. Later, due to cancer, but she'd died all the same. Lionel had almost died recently, too -- in the tornado that had hit the mansion. If Lex hadn't been there, if he'd decided not to pull him out of the rubble when he could... But Lionel _was_ alive.

It was bad enough that the differences stood out like that so glaringly, that it was so obvious that the 'rules' just might not apply at all, and how dangerous that might turn out to be if reality shifted away from the story too far. If they started losing their ongoing fights against the meteor-rock-induced madness in town, or whatever else that the spell had created that might now await them...

What was worse, though, what **really** scared him, was the idea that any or all of those starting differences simply _didn't matter_ \-- that, regardless of where they'd began, and whether or not they wanted it to, that the spell might warp them into _acting_ that way. That events would occur to bring things 'in line' as much as was possible. That they'd have to follow those set 'rules' of the story the magic had settled on, no matter what. A fixed destiny, with no choice whatsoever.... That scared him. That downright _**terrified**_ him.

Would Clark begin to bicker and argue with him, to the point that they were no longer friends? Would his father run the risk of dying, over and over again, until Lex could no longer save him ...and would he even continue to want to do so? He wasn't even sure he'd done the right thing as it was! And what would happen if Lex transformed and Clark-as-'Sailor Moon' saw him as 'Tuxedo Kamen'? --As if he needed another reason to convince Clark not to transform!

But, more relevant to his interaction with his father just then -- in the manga, Mamoru, 'Tuxedo Kamen', had been a very studious individual, and Lex vaguely remembered something to the effect that Mamoru had been studying to be a doctor.

Lex had been studying biochemistry when his father had yanked him out of his graduate program, and that degree was generally used in medical fields. Lex himself had wanted to _use_ it that way once he was done with his schooling.

And now that the spell was in play, his father was trying to push him back _into_ that medical program.

Lex shivered.

His father had seemed almost _distracted_ when he'd been talking to him, and that, somehow, made it all that much worse.

Had his father really meant what he'd said? ...Or had it just been the spell?

Lex had never received praise from his father in his _life_. That ought to sum it up quite dismally.

...Except Lex **also** knew full well that he had never before spent so much time and effort actively _trying_ to do something that he was _sure_ his father would approve of. He'd actively fought the very thought of helping him to run LuthorCorp for _years_. He had no doubt that Lionel certainly hadn't thought he could do it, that Lex could actually turn the plant around on his own, let alone in so little time. He certainly doubted that Lionel had expected to pull the plant out from under his feet like he had, that Lex would have been able to not only stage the buyout, but also to pull it off.

All of that took sheer guts, determination, and effort. It took standing up to Lionel and all but _spitting_ in his face. ...And it would be so very like his father to perversely be proud of Lex for doing it. For _winning_.

...And hadn't Lionel already offered to pull Lex 'back into the fold' once before? It had been an offer to work at the main branch of LuthorCorp, rather than letting him go back to school, but it had been an offer. Lex would rather have worked in the main branch at Metropolis before banishment to the countryside and the plant in Smallville (...at least, he had before he'd met Clark), and Lionel had known that. The next logical step up from a higher position with better pay, as a sign of further respect and approval, _would_ be to offer to have him complete more schooling before coming back to work for LuthorCorp again, wouldn't it?

It was such an insidious thought. Lex _wanted_ to believe that his father had been telling him the truth, without having been influenced by external or other factors, but...

Lex shook himself. _In all honesty, I probably won't know for sure until I finally remove the spell,_ he told himself.

And then he felt his eyes widen and he froze.

Because...

He'd made the spell robust. Flexible. As flexible and robust as he possibly could have, in fact. He'd _wanted_ it to work, and continue to work, and not stop until it had worked for Clark, but all without forcing him into anything. In some respects, it was _supposed_ to be a gentle prodding from point A to point B, if and only if that point B existed. ...And what exactly was 'gentle prodding' from a Luthor, anyway, if nothing more than overt manipulation? And, if Lex was right, then he had been picked out by the spell as one of the two most central characters. Could he have made the spell so subversive that the spell was able to, in effect, _bribe_ him with something he direly wanted, to make him give up trying to find a way to undo it, in order to continue to function? Was that even _possible?_

...And what would happen if he was right? If his father really _had_ only made his offer to let Lex go back to grad school with his blessing because of the spell? What would happen if-- no, _when_ he eventually dispelled it?

What would happen if he got himself up to speed on magic and the spell they were all stuck in, knew how to undo it, was fully ready to do it, and just... decided to wait a few years. Until after he'd graduated with his Ph.D., just in case his father was being unduly influenced by the spell. So it wouldn't matter anymore, one way or the other, what his father might say to him if he changed his mind again after that.

He couldn't, shouldn't even _think_ of trying to put 'eventually' off even _further_ than it had to be ...should he? It wasn't worth the risk to wait, right? And while Lex would be far happier going back to grad school than continuing to struggle with either his father or the Smallville plant, Clark was obviously **un** happy about the way things had been going so far. So... for _all_ of those _very good_ reasons... it would be selfish and... and just plain **wrong** for him to put it off, wouldn't it?

...Wouldn't it?

Lex swallowed. Hard.

~*~*~*~*~*~


End file.
